Saturday, September 26, 2009

Three Tomatoes - One Way

My favorite thing to do with tomatoes is make "Tomatoes and Cheese - 3 Ways" This is actually the only reason I plant tomatoes in my garden. (Maybe someday I'll share my 3 ways but not now.) This summer I got distracted from gardening by more exciting activities and almost never watered my raised beds. I only got around to putting miracle grow on them once all summer so they were almost totally organic. My 5 plants still made tomatoes but just not that many and all at the same time. I went from no tomatoes to 3 big bowls full and they were going bad faster than I could go through the cheese. There aren't any more coming so I couldn't bring myself to share them. I decided to make soup. Tomato soup is perfect with grilled cheese...hey I guess I could change this to tomatoes and cheese 4 ways...but I won't. I settled on a simple recipe for tomato sage soup I found on foodgawker since despite not watering it, my sage is steadily taking over the herb garden and I can never get my basil to grow. I then made the same recipe 3 times using different kinds of tomatoes. Sadly I can't remember the names of the varieties of tomatoes any better than I can remember to water them so I can only refer to them by their colors. Orange, red, and the big creepy dark ones. I actually planned on just making soup twice but when I saw the creepy dark ones at the farmer's market Saturday I wanted to make them into soup. Plus they were so big I only needed to buy 2 and I had over 2 pounds. I tried to take a picture of the same step each time but I'm not a food blogger so I missed some but managed to get three steps with pictures of each kind. I ate a bowl of each and froze the rest for later. The winner for best taste was the creepy dark soup from the farmer's market tomatoes but the orange ones were a very close second. I think next time I'll save the plain red tomatoes for eating fresh.

fresh tomatoes ready to roast

out of the oven and into the pot

Finally, ready for a side of grilled cheese!

(This last step can wait till tomorrow...or the next day...or next week till the night before my parents get to town and I have to finally clean my house and pretend I didn't have week old dishes in my sink.)

I can only grow rosemary, thyme, and chives. I've tried lots of other stuff over the years, but it has all died. :( You should try Ina Garten's Cream of Fresh Tomato Soup from her newest cookbook. It is awesome. I'd love to hear how it compares to your recipe.

And PS Katie...If you don't come visit soon, I WILL write you out of my will. You're intrigued now, aren't you.

I'll take them both

Quotes I try to live by

"There's plenty of money out there. They print more every day. But this ticket, there's only five of them in the whole world, and that's all there's ever going to be. Only a dummy would give this up for something as common as money. Are you a dummy?" -Grandpa George

"Be a half-assed crusader, a part-time fanatic. Don’t worry to much about the fate of the world. Saving the world is only a hobby. Get out there and enjoy the world, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, husbands, wives; climb mountains, run rivers, get drunk, do whatever you want to do while you can, before it’s too late." –Edward Abbey

Life is hard? True- but let's love it anyhow, though it breaks every bone in our bodies. -Edward Abbey

"Candy doesn't have to have a point. That's why it's candy." -Charlie Bucket